Best wishes for Pongo

[manicsfan]

Ones of my cats, Pongo, was apparently hit by a car last night :(

I found him in the hall, which immediately roused my suspicion since he never usually sleeps there. I damn near had a heart attack when I noticed a blood stain on the carpet and couldn't see him visibly breathing, not to mention him not moving when I touched him.

Anyway, he was very lethargic, and when he got up he walked around for a bit, slumped down again and leaked some more watery blood out, which appeared to be coming from his genitals. He keep growling or meowing when I tried to look and see where the blood was coming from.

Pongo back in March 2009:


Well of course we got him off to the vets. They do suspect he's been hit by a car and has damaged his bladder, amongst the other less serious cuts and bruises, which was why the watery blood was coming from his genitals. They're unable to tell initially, but they hope that the bladder is still in tact, and they'll be phoning later with an update.

So I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. Pongo is a tough cat, he's 9 years old and we've had him literally his whole life (he was born in our house). So I'm desperately hoping he will pull through this.



I'll add the update onto this post when we hear news.

~ Ace.

Comments

[manics-fan.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's very nice of you to offer. Unfortunately it'll probably be a few years yet until I have either the money, or more importantly the confidence to go travelling on my own to another country. But I'm sure it'll be worth the wait when I do finally manage it.

I just Googled Lake Como and it looks absolutely beautiful. I'd be sure to make a stop there whenever I do manage to visit Italy.

[01cheers.livejournal.com]

You've just made a big mistake by mentioning Como back to me :P I literally can't shut up about it. In the 54 countries I've seen, mostly scenic ones with very few exceptions (though New Zealand and China are still on my "to see" list), it is the most beautiful spot I've been to, which was about 90% of the reason I chose to move to Italy - but now I live too far from it to go there on weekends and have to make do with a week and a long weekend a year :/ Anyway, since you tempted me, here are my favourite pictures from among the, by now, thousands I've taken.



(remember Star Wars ep 2? Incidentally, the next two and the last one are of the same place from different angles.)













And re confidence to travel, Italy is one of the easiest and friendliest places to travel in. Italians are generally fairly relaxed and nice to tourists, and even if they only speak two words of English (or none at all), they'll be happy to help and give pointers. This country has its problems, but other than bloody transport strikes, you won't run into most of them on holiday.

[manics-fan.livejournal.com]

54 countries? Wow, you've been to a lot of places! I can see why you love Como so much though. It looks like such an ideal place, very beautiful, almost like something out of a painting. Italy in general has always been at the top of my "places I want to visit in Europe" list. I was hoping to go to Venice a few years ago for my 21st birthday, but unfortunately never managed it in the end.

It's good to know that Italy is a good place to travel. I keep mentally picturing a nightmare image of myself - looking like such a stereotypical English tourist - standing there with a huge map, backpack, pale skin, and trying to find someone who speaks English to point me in the right direction (only to end up getting lost anyway!). I am not a good traveller! XD

[01cheers.livejournal.com]

You are right about Como. It is so beautiful as to have occasionally moved me to tears, and seems very far away from the rest of the world, living on its own time. Ideally, it is best to stay overnight (I prefer going for a week), but if you stay in Milan, you can take the first train there and the last boat and train back and spend a full day there that way, as the lake is only an hour away from Milan.

In Western Europe, the only two countries you are *not* OK with English are France and Spain. The French linguistic arrogance is legendary; in Spain, few people speak English, signs and pointers are rare, and locals largely ignore tourists, though both countries are beautiful. Otherwise, most Northern Europeans are fluent English speakers; the Portuguese (my second favourite European destination) and Greeks are very much used to English tourists, as are the Italians, and the Italians in particular are actually likely to volunteer to help if they see you as a tourist looking obviously lost. The only well-known risks to look out for are pickpockets on crowded Roman bus routes and crooks of various descriptions in Naples, notably cab drivers (also an occasional, though rare, problem in Rome - you just have to watch the meter) - and the scooters zooming around the bigger cities at crazy speeds, though they'll brake for pedestrians. And of course the f***ing transport strikes, which are now passing from a monthly to a bi-weekly event. But other than that, it really is an easy and pleasant place to travel around, especially the regions north or Rome.

[manics-fan.livejournal.com]

This is where I need my very own Nick Clegg to translate for me! Because if I ever go to either of those places I'm going to be stuck there, with my French or Spanish phrase book, pronouncing words wrong and getting looks of disdain! XD

But as I say, Italy is at the top of my places to visit wishlist, there and the Netherlands (I'm currently trying to learn Dutch), so it's good to know it's such a friendly place. I've only ever been outside the UK once before - to Greece when I was younger - and I've always wanted to travel around Europe. I'm impressed at how many places you've been to.

[01cheers.livejournal.com]

I've been to Amsterdam and it is nice, though I tend to subjectively prefer southern Europe to Northern. If you go there for a few days or a week, you can also make day trips to Bruges or Brussels or Copenhagen, all of which are very pleasant so long as it is not raining ;)

As for travel, I suspect that I am way older than you - late thirties vs your early twenties - so you have plenty of time to beat my "record". I did not really start travelling until I was nearly twenty (and now I can no longer afford to travel much, but at least I've seen a bunch of places by now.)